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R&B was celebrated during Centric/BET’s “Soul Train Awards” telecast last night. The show was taped on Nov. 6. The Weeknd and Uptown Funk tied with two awards each to lead the list of winners. The Weeknd grabbed Best R&B/Soul Male Artist and Album Of The Year for “Beauty Behind The Madness”, while Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk”, featuring Bruno Mars, won for Song Of The Year and Video Of The Year. Among the other winners Jidenna for Best New Artist. Opening the show with a medley of her hits, Erykah Badu doubled as host, keeping up a lively pace. At one point, she made fun of her “bad influence” on some of hip hop’s most notable stars. In another moment that drew raucous laughter, Badu noted that the evening would be devoted to singing and thus, no rappers were allowed. She even took a phone call on stage from rapper Iggy Azalea telling her that she could come to the show however, “because you’re definitely not rap”. This was Badu’s second stint as host, having hosted the show in 1999. A slew of established and emerging stars delivered powerful performances, including Tyrese (who won The Centric Certified Award), R Kelly, Jazmine Sullivan, Cameo, Erica Campbell, Tasha Cobbs, Empire’s V. Bozeman and After 7. Badu along with Chrisette Michele, K-Ci Hailey, Lalah Hathaway and Eddie Levert brought the crowd to its feet during the inaugural Soul Train Cypher. Capping the evening were tributes to Jill Scott and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. Upon receiving the first ever Lady Of Soul Award, Scott treated the audience to a stirring performance of fan favorites and new material including her current single “Back Together”, “A Long Walk Home”, “Whatever” and “Cross My Mind”. Scott also took home Best R&B/Soul Female Artist. Babyface’s prolific and Grammy Award winning career as a songwriter/producer was the focal point of a roof raising tribute that included Fantasia (who brought the house down with “Exhale (Shoop, Shoop)”, Boys To Men (I’ll Make Love To You, “End Of The Road”), Brandy (“Sitting Up In My Room”), Tevin Campbell (“Can We Talk”) and surprise guest Bobby Brown (“Roni”, joined by Babyface). Epic chairman/CEO and longtime friend and creative/business partner LA Reid presented the Legend Award to Babyface, who ended the tribute with a performance of his hit “Whip Appeal”. It was a star studded evening that won’t be forgotten. Rapper Ict T and his wife Coco announced the birth of their daughter. Coco posted a picture of the infant on her Instagram account. Singer John Legend and his wife Chissy Teigen showed their support for Planned Parenthood after a deadly shooting at a Colorado Springs clinic on Friday. Teigen tweeted her response to the incident including a link to the organization’s donation page as well as additional messages of support. Legend later retweeted his wife’s message.

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Singer Chris Brown released a new mixtape to get fans ready for his upcoming album “Royalty”. The R&B star shared a 34-track mixtape, titled, “Before The  Party”, via social media today. The project features guest appearances from Rhianna, Fetty Wrap, Wale and French Montana, according to Complex. “Before The Party” comes less than a month before Brown’s next studio album “Royalty”, which will be released on Dec. 18. The album is now available for pre-order. The album is named after Brown’s 1-year-old daughter. Singer Erykah Badu made timelines bling with the release of her mixtape “But You Cain’t Use My Phone” on iTunes today. The phone-themed project finds @fatbellybella cruising on different slow jams that pay homage to her hit “Tyrone”. The singer released her own version of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” titled “Cel U Lar Device” and the original track “Phone Down” and brought back New Edition’s 1984 classic “Mr. Telephone Man” as well.  Drake returned the favor by rapping on “U Used To call Me”. The singer’s former flame Andre 3000 raps on the track “Hello”, not the Adele hit, which features 3 Stacks and Badu’s synergy on wax while offering Outkast fans the kind of material they’d been waiting for. Badu’s new release will be exclusively on iTunes and streaming on Apple Music for a week before hitting other digital retailers and streamers on Dec. 4. “But U Cain’t Use My Phone” marks the first project since 2010’s “New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankn).

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Naughty By Nature fans are sure to start shouting hip hop hooray, as the 90’s rap group has announced that it will celebrate it’s 25th anniversary with a tour, EP and documentary. After keeping busy with gigs in the states and abroad, including Brooklyn’s “90’s Fest”, the New Jersey based group, consisting of Treach, Vinney and KG, will embark on a 26-city tour beginning on Jan. 27 in Greensboro NC and wrapping up in Philadelphia on Feb. 28. According to Rolling Stone, the group will release an EP and a documentary toasting to their lengthy career, including their early days as the New Style. Naughty By Nature garnered success with the hits “Opp” and “Hip Hop Hooray”. iHeart Radio recently pulled some statistics from its 75 million users to see who and what stuck across stations in 2015. R&B was the top ranking genre overall, thanks to Drake and his GIF-filled  video for “Hotline Bling”, along with The Weeknd and Wiz Khalifa’s “Furious 7” soundtrack tearjerker “See You Again”, featuring Charlie Puth. Pop, Rap, Country and Latin followed respectively. Honorable mentions include Ed Sheeran, who received the honor for most liked song with “Thinking Out Loud”, beating out Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space” and Meghan Trainor’s   “All About That Bass”. Breaking down the statistics state by state, however, Drake came out on top across 20 states in the U.S. thanks to “Hotline Bling”, despite it’s mid-2015 premiere. Taylor Swift fans came out in full force, allowing her to become the leading artist nationwide for station creates, where iHeart Radio users put together commercial free custom stations with their favorite tracks, albums and artists. She’s followed by the Weeknd, Sam Smith, Maroon 5 and Nicki Minaj.

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Singer/actress  Jennifer Lopez performed double duty last night as performer and host of last night’s “American Music Awards”.  Lopez opened the annual event dancing to a medley of some of the year’s top hits, much to the bemusement of Nicki Minaj and The Weeknd. Minaj swept the hip hop/rap categories for favorite album and artist, referring to “The Pinkprint” as “the  hardest album I’ve ever had to do, write and perform every night”, during her acceptance speech. The real surprises began after Meghan Trainor and Charlie Puth, two of the biggest stars of the past few months, ended their duet with a kiss that quickly extended to a full-on make out. A representative confirmed that the two are just friends. Sam Hunt won best new artist of the year over Tove Love, Fetty Wrap, Walk the Moon and The Weeknd. As for performances, Demi Lovato’s performance of “Confident” earned her a standing ovation from the audience. Ariana Grande, who won favorite female pop/rock artist, kicked off with a lounge singer intro before going full band cabaret for a performance of “Focus”. The Weekend effortlessly transitioned in and out of his falsetto on “The Hills” while Macklemore debuted a new track with Leon Bridges titled “Kevin”. The moving speech by actor Jared Leto regarding the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month should be mentioned along with the performance by Celine Dion who sang “Hymne L’Amour” in French in front of a backdrop of Parisian landmarks. One Direction took home the “American Music Awards” top honor while Justin Bieber’s three song medley, an acoustic version of “What Do You Mean?”, a Shrillex and Diplo enhanced “Where Are You Now?”, and a rain soaked “Sorry” ended the evening on a high note. The first week sales of Bieber’s latest album “Purpose” surpassed One Direction, which should make the singer very happy.

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Singer R. Kelly joined Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” to promote his 13th studio album “The Buffet”, due out next month. He performed the hits as well as newer material including “Ignition Remix” and “Bump And Grind”, along with “Backyard Party” and the promotional single “Marching Band”. For the latter, he added  a marching band themed flair by adding a tuba and snare, both played by the best dressed marching band members in recent memory. Singer Angie Stone earned her highest charting set since 2007 when her latest effort “Dream” debuted at No. 3 with 9,000 units sold in the week ending Nov. 12, according to Nielsen Music. It’s her best rank since her fourth studio effort, “The Art Of Love & War”, topped the chart for one week in 2007 (16,000 first week sales). “Dream’s” first single “2 Bad Habits”, dips two spots to number 22 on Adult R&B Songs due to an 8 percent decline in airplay on that format. Stone has landed a total of 17 tracks on that airplay chart, starting with “No More Rain (In This Cloud)”, which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 (peaking in 1999). Her only other No. 1 single came when “Baby”, featuring Betty Wright, topped the charts for one week. Rappers 50 Cent and Rick Ross may not be the best of friends, but their release dates are in sync. Both rappers have announced that they each will release mix tapes on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26. Aside from his conflict with Derek Jeter over allegations regarding his Frigo underwear line, 50 Cent will also be kept busy working on new tracks for “The Kanan Tape”, the follow up to his 2014 album “Animal Ambition”. Meanwhile, Ross has done the same. The Maybach Music mogul has completed remixes for Adele’s “Hello” and Drake and Future’s “Jumpman”. Ross will bundle those remixes for #RenzelRemixes”, also due out next week. His eighth studio album, “Black Market”, will be released Dec. 4.

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The Recording Academy has set a schedule for this year’s Grammy Award nominations. The announcements will kick off at 8 a.m ET on Dec 7 when the four biggest categories (best new artist, record, song and album of the year) are revealed on “CBS This Morning”. All nominations in 83 oocategories will be announced at 8:30 on Grammy.com. The 2016 Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Staples Center on Feb 15, 2016. Singer Tamar Braxton has been released from the hospital after blood clots in her legs. She and family members have been denying rumors that there’s bad blood due to the attention the youngest member has been receiving. Model/actress Corrine Foxx, daughter of actor/comedian Jamie Foxx, has been selected as Miss Golden Globe 2016 for the 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards, according to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. HFPA President Lorenzo Soria made the announcement at HFPA’s first party of the 2016 Golden Globe season,  held at Ysabel West Hollywood. The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards will air on Jan. 10, 2016 on NBC at 8 p.m. from the Beverly Hilton Hotel and will be hosted by Ricky Gervais.

Video Pick: With Or Without Me-L Renee

L Renee is a R&B singer/songwriter who has been building a musical empire through her own independent record label L’ Renee Musique Inc. social network marketing, Internet radio and playing a lot of shows. She is currently touring with fellow Detroit native Kem.

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Kobalt Music Publishing has signed an agreement with R&B singer/songwriter Kem. Under the terms of the agreement, Kobalt with administer and provide publishing and sync-licensing services for all of the Grammy nominated artist’s previous and future projects. Comprising the former are “Kemistry” (2003), “Album 2” (2005), “Intimacy: Album 3” (2010) and “Promise To Love” (2014). In addition to Kem, Kobalt Music Publising’s most recent signings include Lionel Richie, Robert Glasper and songwriter/producer Chuck Harmony. In other Kem news,  Avant, Marsha Ambrosius and Jazmine Sullivan will join Kem on his headlining “Promise To Love” tour. Tamar Braxton, originally Kem’s opening act, left the tour and “Dancing With The Stars” after blood clots were discovered in her lungs. Kem, who wrapped up the second leg of Charlie Wilson’s “Forever Charlie” tour in June, kicked off his current tour with Braxton in Los Angele’s Microsoft Theater on Nov. 6. Kemistry Records artist L Renee will be included on the shows as well.  Singer ILoveMakonnen’s timeline kicked in to overdrive over the weekend with the release of his new single “Second Chance”, produced by DJ Mustard. The OVO Sounds party starter sings about a special lady who didn’t treat  him well on the track, which premiered over the weekend on Anna Lunoe’s Beat 1 radio show. “Second Chance” will appear on ILoveMakonnen’s forthcoming album “iLoveMakonnen 2”, due on Nov. 20 via Warner Bros./OVO Sound.

Video Pick: Desperation-Judith Hill

Flashback Friday: How Long ( Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)-The Pointer Sisters

The Pointer Sisters were one of the most popular female groups of the 1970’s. Originally consisting of Ruth, June, Bonnie and Anita Pointer, the Pointer Sisters were four of six children born to the union of  Elton and Sarah Pointer. The group began singing in their father’s church with Ruth directing the junior choir.  The sisters interest in music eventually expanded with Ruth coming home with a copy of Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” and surprisingly, the girls were allowed to play it. Anita Pointer once told an interviewer that she thought the only reason the song got in the house was because “Crying In The Chapel” was on the opposite side. The Pointer Sisters were officially formed after Anita quit her day job to join Bonnie and June in 1969. Ruth quit her day job to join the fold in 1972.  David Robinson got the group work singing back up on studio sessions by Taj Mahal, Grace Slick, Boz Scaggs and others. David Robinson later signed the girls to a management contract in 1971. The group’s debut album was released on Blue Thumb creating a buzz with critics calling them “The most exciting thing to hit show business in years”. Their first single, “Yes, We Can”, hit number 11 on the Billboard Pop Charts. They went on the have more hits including “Wang, Dang, Doodle” and ‘Fairytale”, which won a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group. By the end of the decade, sister Bonnie had left for a solo career with the remaining trio struggling for a time. The group made a cameo appearance in the Blaxploitation film “Car Wash” in 1976. They signed with Planet Records at the end of the 1970’s and teamed with producer Richard Perry. That collaboration would result in the hits “Fire”, “Slow  Hand”, “He’s So Shy”, “I’m So Excited’, “Automatic” and “Nutron Dance”, among others. Today, Ruth, Anita and granddaughter Sadako continue to perform for fans around the world.